I was as ready as I was going to get for work tomorrow. There wasn’t a thing I could do to prepare myself any better. Most of the adventure was going to be handling whatever came up, diving into whatever needed to be done, acquainting myself with every facet of the property, and I was up for that. I thrived on the challenge. However, if I was sleep-deprived, my first day could be a disaster.

My eyelids were heavy, my vision was blurry, and I was just being stubborn and stupid by sitting here for so long.

The truth was, I wasn’t sure I would have given in to sharing the master bedroom with Holden had he not presented it as a challenge.

I couldn’t back down from a challenge and he knew it, so there was nothing left to do but buck up, get my ass in there, and try to get some sleep for my first day on my newish job. Staying up any later was sabotaging myself for a very important day.

The lights in the bedroom had been off for over an hour, and there was nothing but silence throughout Holden’s small house that, in any other situation, I would have referred to as cute and cozy. But living here, with him, made it seem smaller and not so comfortable.

I’d get used to it eventually. I had to.

I put my laptop away, packed up my work bag, and bit the bullet. After turning out the living room lamp, I used the light on my phone to find my way to Holden’s bedroom. I couldn’t see how it would ever feel like my room.

In the moonlight coming through the cracks around the blinds, I could just barely make out Holden in the bed. He lay on the side closest to the door, facing away from me right now, but once I crawled under the covers, he’d be facing me full on.

With a silent but deep inhale, I made my way to the far side of the bed, pulled back the covers minimally so as not to disturb him, and eased my way onto the edge of the mattress. I lay on my back, staring up at the ceiling, my heart on overdrive.

When he didn’t stir, I let out my breath and thought belatedly that I needed to find something to help me sleep. Melatonin? A meditation app on my phone? A home-brewed beer? I was open to anything.

“I was beginning to think you were avoiding me.”

Holden’s voice was low but it still startled me. God, that half-asleep voice was sexy.

Not helping.

“Lots of work,” I whispered. “Go back to sleep.”

He let out a sleepy cross between a growl and a sigh.

So not helping, I thought to myself.